Super Empire Strikes Back – SNES

Welcome to a new week and the second in a trilogy of fantastic games by Lucasarts. Well, we wished and we received, a game that out does it’s predecessor!, and yet again, sticks to the films plot like a fly to fly paper!..My colleague has been busy with some reviewing on the Gameboy Advance so I am taking my time with these classic games on the SNES..After the fantastic effort of Super Starwars, hot on it’s heels comes – Super Empire Strikes Back!, and what a game…

The graphics in my opinion out do the original game, big style! The over all presentation of the game is near enough the same as the original Starwars which in a way is good, because fans of the original will instantly get back into the swing of things as soon as you start. One thing I will mention is the difficulty of the game is noticeably harder than Super Starwars, the first level is set on Hoth and the first thing you notice as Luke, you get the Light Sabre instantly, which is great fun, just to swing about to hear the famous buzz! The range of movement with the light sabre is very cool, if you hit the fire button on it’s own, Luke swings it, if you hit up and fire, he does an over head swipe, and you can also block attacks too, which is true to form. Of course you do have a trusty blaster too, which you can switch to at any point in the game, no force powers though, but as Luke was in training at that point in the films, it’s forgivable.

One thing that I found to be a nice touch was in the first level on Hoth, you battle on foot until you find a Tauntaun, which you can then hop on and ride..making lighter leg work for you and speeds along at quite a pace…bonus to being on the Tauntaun is you can still swing your light sabre around as protection from giant snowballs, strange creatures and Hoth Wampers, which make a somewhat unwelcome appearance 🙂 The music is better than ever and in glorious stereo, the score from the film has been implemented with every detail going in to enhance the gaming experience. On the title screen you are greeted to the imperial march theme, absolute heaven for Starwars fans. The sound of the weapons is great, with every swish of the light sabre comes that famous WOMMMMM, HUMMMM…Sorry, got carried away there for a moment, the only downside really is, it is a tricky game, a little more so than the original, but follows the story down to the letter, bring on the third and final part of this trilogy, and maybe some force powers?…Character change?. Just when things surely couldn’t get any better….they do! Another great effort!